Shellfish bed safe, legal after spill

The Battery Creek shellfish bed in Beaufort County is open for harvesting again after contamination from a sewage spill closed it one month ago.

The reopening means the public may collect oysters and clams without fear of getting the illness vibrio and the vomiting, diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps that come with it. The public will also be saved a $470 penalty that is imposed for breaking the law by harvesting from a closed shellfish bed.

“These areas have been reopened because water quality sampling results indicate bacteria levels are suitable for clam and oyster harvesting,” said Mike Pearson, manager of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Shellfish Sanitation program, in a statement.

DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said the factors that typically lead to clear test results and a bed’s reopening usually involve letting nature take its course and dilute the water that is being monitored.

The danger of contaminated shellfish beds is caused by Vibrio vulnificus, which is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Myrick said a commercial harvester who has been given maps and can be expected to have a professional awareness of the approved, unapproved and closed areas could be fined the maximum of $200. The amount totals $470, including court costs and administrative fees and also means the loss of a days catch. Law enforcement typically gives recreational harvesters who break the law a warning and confiscate any shellfish that were harvested.

“Law enforcement are out up and down the coast every day, monitoring this and doing what it is they do, which is protecting the public health and making sure no one is in violation,” said Myrick.